The Second Amnesiac
by sanctum-c
Summary: Cloud awakens in Norende, mistakenly considered the sole survivor of Norende's destruction.


The last clear thought Cloud had before he awoke was of a woman's hand resting against his head. She had spoken for a brief moment and a man's voice had agreed with her. He could remember no detail of the conversation, nor if he had managed to reply. There had been a dizzying jolt, a sense of speed and movement and then nothing but blinding light all around him. There was a wooden ceiling above him. He glanced to his side and found his shoulder swathed in bandages. One of the clearer remaining memories was of a burning sensation passing through his body. He frowned, remembering receiving an injury there more than once though the details evaded him. His memory was a confused morass of fragmentary images. A man with silver-hair who brought nothing but pain. A girl with braided brown hair and green eyes who spoke in soft, amused tones. A girl with long black hair and red eyes urging him onward, someone who believed in him without a single doubt. A man with spiky black hair who seemed somehow vaguer than the others.

He sat up with a groan, trying to remember anything with clarity. A heavy footfall made him look around, causing his heart to lurch in panic and tactical movements came to mind. He found himself staring at a man in armor. There was a sheathed sword at the stranger's side, but nothing in his body language suggested he was about to draw it. Cloud forced his muscles to relax a little.

"Finally awake, are you? You've been out a full week." Cloud stayed silent. "I'm captain of the Caldislan guard. My name is Owen. I'm afraid I do not know yours."

"Cloud," he replied, surprised this was at least clear in his head. He tried to place the location Owen mentioned. He did not recognise it but he realised he could also not name anything from his past with any confidence.

"We found you in the ravine near Norende," Owen continued, looking wary. "I take it that was your home?" Not a question Cloud felt in any position to answer. As far as he knew, it could have been his home. He nodded, not ready to reveal his ignorance of everything. Owen swallowed. "I must ask you to stay calm; your village is gone."

Cloud wondered if the village had been his home. It felt like the captain's words should have more of an impact upon him. Something niggled at the back of his head, some suggestion that he had lived through a similar situation before. Something had consumed his village though he had survived the ordeal. Owen ploughed on, trying to divest himself of his somber task. "The town was swallowed by the earth; there's nothing there now but a massive chasm."

The words jarred. Cloud was certain his home had perished in flames, not fallen into the depths of the planet. But the memories crumbled into confusing imagery whenever he tried to concentrate on them. "You appear to have been spared, but the others... Do not think on it now. Rest for now; there will be time for mourning later."

He snapped Cloud a salute and walked with stiff strides from the room. Curiosity was now getting the better of him. He wanted to see the place they had found him. He needed to see this chasm and the surrounding lands; the familiar sight might coax his confused memories. There was a sword propped beside the bed. Despite all his confusion he was certain this sword was his. But doubts plagued him; he remembered it as smaller, somehow split and sectioned. He had needed to split the blade to achieve a victory. He had left its pieces behind but they were here, reassembled and ready.

Nervous fingers reached out and grasped the handle. He hefted it with surprising ease despite the size and mass of the sword. It comprised of interlocking sections that almost appeared to be separate blades. While curious, he could puzzle out its functions later if necessary. He stood up from the bed and picked up the folded garment beside it. The snarling wolf head insignia on the breast felt familiar, but once again his memory failed him. He pulled it on and slung the blade over his shoulder. Some kind of harness was in order if he wanted to continue carrying the weapon around with him, but he'd make do for now.

He passed the innkeeper downstairs, a kind-faced older man named Karl. The man looked at Cloud with a degree of confusion when he asked how to get back to Norende. The innkeeper described the route Cloud would need to take, supposing this must be his first time away from the village. Cloud elected not to comment, instead thanking the Karl for his time.

Cloud squinted in the bright sunlight as he exited the inn. The sky was a brilliant blue and dotted with white clouds. The air smelt odd. No, rather there was an absence of some scent he had been anticipating. Something that pervaded the air no matter where you went, or how long it had been since- He shook his head, the memory refusing to come.

"Eschalot, Eschalot. Now why does that sound familiar?"

Cloud glanced around to see a man reading from a leather bound book inscribed with a large 'D'. The pompadour'd man forgot the book in a moment and now posed with exaggerated nonchalance as a trio of girls wandered past. Cloud watched with morbid curiosity as the man smiled and complimented each girl in turn. The spectacle held little interest for Cloud and he wandered out of the town. A chill breeze whipped through the grasslands as he approached the ravine forming the only path to Norende.

His body reacted on instinct to the first attack and it was over almost before he realised what he was doing. He had a knack for combat it seemed. The massive sword was an extension of his body and he moved it with surprising ease. He bisected the attacking creatures with a few quick strokes and he nudged the dead bodies into the gorge beside him. The path was narrow and treacherous, the drop to his left deeper than he could see, its depths lost in heavy mist. He had fought in similar conditions before it seemed; his foot-work never saw him wrong as a new mob of creatures dived for him.

It was a relief to feel the cool breeze on his face a short while later. He moved from the gloom of the path and onto a rocky shelf above what might have once been a plateau. Now there was nothing more than a gaping maw of darkness. Far in the distance he could see rivers flowing into the chasm, the waters vanishing into the depths. But he felt nothing; there was no sense of familiarity here. For some reason he felt a return to the place of his birth would have felt alien regardless, felt certain it had happened once before. A voice interrupted his thoughts.

"Can you hear my prayers?" He glanced around, spotting a girl in a white dress nearby her hands clasped in prayer. "Wherever you are, whoever you are. Can you see the wound torn open before me? Please, let the walls of the world collapse no further. Let me be strong enough to stem this flood."

Cloud walked towards the praying girl. "Do... do you know what caused the chasm?" he asked as she whirled in surprise. "Were there any other survivors?"

"I am sorry," she said, after an awkward pause. "You alone survived."

The roar of an engine interrupted them before Cloud could ask any more questions. Turning he saw an airship approaching.

"The Sky Knights," the girl exclaimed. "I thought I'd covered my trail... Go. Now. It's me they want." She stared at him with fierce eyes. "I'm not involving an innocent bystander." She ran past him, heading back towards the path as the airship opened fire. He moved on instinct.

He slashed through the air aiming for an incoming canon ball. The projectile cleaved in two without resistance as he swung the sword and the red hot sections of metal tumbled past them. He repeated the movement with two more quick slashes on the next volley. He could do this. His certainty fled as he saw two blasts headed for him at once. He could not defend against both; he needed two blades. The canon balls closed and he was reacting on instinct once again, his left hand now grabbing at part of his sword and pulling. The blade broke in an regular pattern and he found himself holding two swords. Without sparing another thought he flicked both wrists and the canon-balls were no more. Almost without thinking he pushed the blades back together and reached a hand to the girl.

"I haven't gotten your name. Mine is Cloud Strife," he said by way of introduction.

"I told you I didn't want any bystanders involved."

"Too late," he remarked. "Now, are you going to tell me your name?"

"Agnes Oblige," the girl responded after a moment. There was a disturbance in the air beside her, and a diminutive winged figure appeared.

"And I'm Airy. It's a pleasure," she said.

Cloud wasn't sure what, if anything, to expect in this world. Despite this, he felt that he had seen stranger things than Airy in his past. Now was not the time to wonder at the fairy-like creature. "Agnes, Airy; let's get you out of here."


End file.
